Baptism!

Date: Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Subject: Zack 8/1/2011

Dad,

You're right, two weeks of news is almost too much to handle!! I can't believe all the family is in town and everything. I still remember the last time we went to Oregon and saw Jon and Mindy! Everyone is growing up so much. I can't believe all of Kevin's kids and Brandon's kids in the picture! Its crazy, it doesn't even feel like I've been gone that long. We were talking the other day about mail and those things and I realised that pictures are the most valuable thing to send to missionaries. I wish I would have told all my friends to send pictures cause all I've got is stories with no pictures!! But it sounds like it was a good 2 weeks, I'll be excited for family reunions someday. Just make sure they plan all of them for after I get back! This week was really exciting for us. We had a baptism! Tony got baptised and asked Elder Thimmesch to do it. So it was needless to say a great week. It was so stressful though up until the baptism. That's really the only time I get stressed out on my mission, just before baptisms. It was really good though and he will be fellowshipped well and is going to institute this week. Elder Thimmesch has got an adventure though, I'll be in York the next two days so he's all on his own in Selby for a while! He'll be here with the Brazilian Elder Melo and its gonna be interesting. I hope he learns a lot and they have a really good time together. I'm sure they will. We also were able to schedule a girl named Nila for baptism. She's been coming to young women's for the better part of a year and her parents have finally let her come to church. We're setting things up with the bishop to visit her parents to make sure its all okay but that's more exciting news! I'll put a picture of the baptism on the end of this e-mail for you, it was a really good night. Its really funny being a missionary though sometimes. We got to so many meetings and are so involved in the ward that you learn a lot about how the church works. It's great to see how the Lord turns your weaknesses into strengths, I love the way the church runs though. I'll be excited to have a calling someday. Well I forgot to e-mail mom back so I'd better do that. Take care of your shoulder I hope it all goes well. Love you Dad
Elder Rowley


Mom,

Our week was great! We had a baptism on Saturday! Tony was baptised by Elder Thimmesch and confirmed by the bishop in sacrament meeting. It was really exciting and it was a great way to end the week. We also were able to schedule a girl who we've been teaching for a while for a date in September. It doesn't seem like its been a week since I last wrote you but it sounds like there was enough action packed in your week to fit in an entire month! There are been some good e-mails today, I really appreciate it. Elder Thimmesch is doing really great. Improving every single day, I'm excited to see how he does in the future. Today will be a real test for him, I'm going away for 2 days to York so he'll be with the Brazilian Elder Melo. Elder Melo came out with him and doesn't speak much English so it will be challenging for both of them! Last week I was with Elder Melo and boy was it fun! He taught me a lot more Portuguese and let me borrow his Pregar meu Evangelho! I promise I don't study it during study time but its fun to look up a word or two in my spare time! He also helped me with my pronunciation of the first vision and taught me how to bear my testimony! There is a Brazilian family that I'm anxious the teach the next spiritual thought to! I also got a package from Grandma that had loads of Grandpa Dale pictures and stuff. It was really good. Well I haven't got much else to report on, here is a picture of Tony's baptism though! Love you mum, tell everyone I say hello and that I love them. You should proper post me some pictures of everything. A missionary can never have enough pictures!!!!!!!
Elder Rowley